Holden Heritage Fleet - Future
/The Canberra Times have taken up this cause, this article, quoting our President, is about the issue of retaining the Holden Heritage fleet in Australia. See article here
Welcome to Automotive Historians Australia News!
Here we publish any relevant news from here and around the globe, from both our members or affiliates. To submit, please forward your proposed contribution to info@autohistoriansaustralia.org, with the subject line 'News item'. We will attempt to get as many items published where relevant.
VALE RON TAURANAC AO
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Automotive Historians Australia Inc is saddened to learn of the passing of our Patron and friend, Ron Tauranac AO. Our condolences are with his family and friends. Ron was a legend of Australian and world motorsport and will forever be remembered as the gifted designer of Brabham and Ralt racing cars. In partnership with Sir Jack Brabham, Ron created the Formula 1 World Drivers' and Constructors' Championship Brabham’s of 1966 and 1967.
Second European Conference for Automotive History
/To be held in the Louwman Museum in The Hague in The Netherlands, on 29-31 March 2019. Please find the leaflet with the programme and booking form (see attached link). The organisers are very grateful to all the speakers who include many members of Automotive different societies. The organisers hope that there will be an even larger number of delegates than at last conference at Mulhouse in 2017.
Global Automobilization papers called
/Journal of World History Special Issue on Automobilization
by Ben Fairfield
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
October 24, 2018 to May 1, 2019
Subject Fields:
World History / Studies
The Journal of World History
Global Automobilization: An Underexamined Transnational Revolution of the Last Two Centuries
Special Issue Editors: Prof. Simon Gunn (University of Leicester), Prof. Fabio López Lázaro, (University of Hawai‘i), Dr. Susan Townsend (University of Nottingham)
This Special Issue of the Journal of World History invites article manuscripts that address any aspect related to the global, transnational, and cross-cultural histories of automobilization, automobilism, anti-automobilism, de-pedestrianization, and re-pedestrianization.
In recent decades, heated scholarly debates about the internal and external combustion engines’ effects on human lives around the world since the 1800s have taken place, but these issues have been investigated as global phenomena primarily within sociology and urban studies rather than in the fields of transnational and world history. Nevertheless, historians have been prominent in advancing our understanding of the complex economic, socio-cultural, and political changes wrought by transportation automobilization; these suggest that it may have been one of the most significant world-scale revolutions of the past century. A growing body of historical evidence points to how the use of vehicles propelled by internal combustion and diesel engines (today’s ubiquitous cars, automobiles, lorries and trucks) changed lives across national, cultural, and continental boundaries, from the top-down spread of global manufacturing and distribution systems to the cross-cultural diffusion of both futuristic dreams about life-enhancing autonomous vehicles and apocalyptic nightmares about automobile dependency. Automobilization thus requires analysis as a world-historical set of changes.
Increased reliance on automobiles since 1900 has profoundly affected how populations faced the challenges of housing, employment, and access to foods, medicines, and social engagement. These processes have continued to evolve alongside the rise of environmental, ecological, and health concerns over the human scale and sustainability of this global automobile revolution (in turn prompting further automobilization efforts in new technological directions, such as the invention of electric cars). Concomitant changes whose consequences are only now coming into scholarly focus, such as the de-pedestrianization of urban life and humans’ increased sedentariness, require analysis as transnational historical phenomena.
The need for a serious examination of these global events is motivated by the significant degree to which both urban and rural spaces since the 1800s have been altered, rebuilt, and even designed to fit the logistical needs of automobiles. Moreover, scholars exploring the cultural, social and political effects of automobilization have also stressed that the changes made to spaces and networks, especially in pre-existing urban contexts, were not just a result of automobilizing processes but also of conscious projects promoting automobilism, even individualistic automobilism, most famously in automobile manufacturers’ promotion of the car as a more desirable mode of movement than public transportation. Such projects were often propelled by ideological and even mythical celebrations of automobiles as vectors for various discourses of modernity with deep political and economic resonance (such as celebrations of individualism, developmentalism, and the technologicalization of daily life). Historical investigations into automobility have also begun to trace the dialectical interplay between automobilism and the reactive projects of anti-automobilism and re-pedestrianization that have recently become globally prominent.
Submission due date: May 1, 2019. PLEASE NOTE that all submissions must be made using the Journal of World History’s online platform, https://jwh.msubmit.net: questions about the online submission system should be directed to journal@hawaii.edu.
Contact Info:
Journal of World History
Contact Email:
URL:
The Conversation Hour: Who really designed the VW Beetle?
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Listen to our Secretary Tony Lupton chatting with Jon Faine on The Conversation Hour about 'Who really designed the VW Beetle?', as well as our 2017 conference.
GM reopens Durant-Dort factory as historical archive and research library
/For the full story on GMs archive see Hemmings Daily
1914 Grand Prix Delage update
/AHA member and ABC presenter Jon Faine recently did a segment on the 7:30 Report of great interest to automotive enthusiasts and historians - about the cloning of the engine block of the 1914 Grand Prix Delage here in Victoria. You can view Jon’s segment here
1914 Grand Prix Delarge
This marvel of 3D printing was overseen by another AHA member, Phil Guilfoyle, who presented a paper about the project at last year’s AHA conference. It’s terrific viewing and a great companion piece to Phil’s paper, which is also available now at this link.
Ron Tauranac AO Honoured
/The patron of Automotive Historians Australia, Ron Tauranac AO, has been inaugurated into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
In the Hall of Fame's second year, Ron joins last year’s inductee and fellow engineer Phil Irving in the special category reserved for “off track” contributions. While noting that Ron was a very proficient driver in his younger days, it is significant that CAMS has seen fit to include people who designed and engineered such successful racing machinery in the honour roll.
After the weekend event, I spoke with Ron who was typically humble about it all, and conveyed our delight in this very important recognition of his contribution to motorsport. It is certainly fitting that both B and T, Brabham and Tauranac, are recognised by Hall of Fame membership, with Ron regarded as the most successful designer of production racing cars in the history of motorsport.
TL